Two Very Different Actresses Competing for 'Carrie' Reboot

A remake (or "re-adaptation" if you want to get into semantics) of Brain DePalma's 'Carrie' was inevitable. What wasn't inevitable was a director as interesting as Kimberly Pierce being attached. she's narrowed her list of potential telekinetic teenagers down to two candidates.

According to Vulture, both Chloe Grace Moretz and Haley Bennett are up for the starring role in the film. The differences between these two actresses present two distinct paths this film could take. Bennett, already a veteran of the horror genre after starring in 'The Haunting of Molly Hartley,' feels like the more traditional choice. At 24, she's juuust the right age to play Hollywood's version of a high school student. Heck, she's actually a few years younger than Sissy Spacek was when she starred in Brian DePalma's 1976 original. Although she's not a particularly well known face on the big screen right now, her career is definitely gaining traction...Terrence Malick doesn't cast you in one of his upcoming projects lightly.

Moretz, on the other hand, would be the atypical choice because the 15 year old actress would be, you know, playing her age. Already known to moviegoers thanks to major roles in 'Kick-Ass,' 'Let Me In' and 'Hugo,' she belongs to the Dakota Fanning school of "Young Actresses Who Have No Reason To Be As Good As They Are." Although Bennett would surely make a fine Carrie White, it would be incredibly refreshing to see the character played by an actual teenager. It may be a horror movie about an outcast girl using her extraordinary powers to enact bloody revenge against those who tormented her, but at its core, 'Carrie' is a story about the teenage experience. To see this story anchored by an actual teenage actress who has the depth and range to honestly convey Carrie's emotional torment would be a stroke of casting genius.

The same report mentions that Pierce is interested in either Jodie Foster or Julianne Moore for the role of Carrie's off-her-rocker, ultra-religious mother (so memorably portrayed by Piper Laurie in the original film). With names like these being thrown around, we can count on one thing: Kimberly Pierce's version of 'Carrie' certainly won't be run of the mill.